The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1887-12-29
sTAUNroN.v VA.
THURSDAY.
DEFERRED MATTER.
In Trouble.

Our Democratic friends in Virginia, and
especially those in the Legislature, are in
trouble. The Republicans in that body
do not seem to possess the milk of hui
man kindness to an appreciable de-
gree, or seek to ameliorate the embarrass-
ments and discomftures of their Demo-
cratic colleagues. The trouble grows out
Of the Democrats trying to ride two horses
going in opposite directions. They want
to endorse the only national administra-
tion they have controlled for a quarter Of
. century, but they know if they do, it
will be the last for quarter of a century
to come. President Cleveland has laid
down the Democratic platform for 1885,
and headed it free-trade. He announced
from his high position, as the voice of
unadulterated Democracy, that our own
people must be taxed to support the gov
eminent. through the internal revenue
system, and foreign importations relieved
of the system of imposts, which Republican
craftsmanship had adopted and enforced,
as the proper source of government reye-
nueS. Mr. Cleveland would open the way,
free of cost, to the workshops and manu-
features of Europe to dump their pro
ducts upon 100000 of people, break
down our industrial system and paralyze
our labor. that England may flourish
and foreign labor reap the reward of the
fertile fields Of our own country. He
would. by the policy he recommends In his
annual message, close every mine and
furnace in Virginia. stop the looms and
spindles of the South, and pay tribute to
other countries at the expense of our own
people. The Democratic members of the
Legislature, know that this policy would
be fatal to their State and to the exis-
tence of their party, and hence they have
to squirm and twist, and invent double
dealing phrases to hold with the national
party and at the same time concliate
home sentiment. They endorse the ad.
and in doing SO simply en-
dorse the legislation of the Republicans
which the Democracy has failed to change, |
and by implication, condemn the Presi !
dent and the platform he has projected
upon the country as the basis of the con-
test of 1888. 1t is a distressing dilemma,
and calls for the heartfelt sympathy of
christian people. Whether Waddill and
Elan and Webb and the other Republican
mem bers in the House. and Hubbard aud
Donald, and Hodges, and others Republican
Senators, can be touched by a sentiment of
charity in a case SO strongly appealing TO
humane feelings, and be prevailed on to
suspend their cruel thrusts and tantaliz.
ing jibes, is matter they must decio e for
But seriously, the rebuke to the admin
istration aud the Speaker OF the House
and nine tenths of the Democratic party
in Congress, by the resolution adopted by
the Virginia Democracy shows how strong
sentiment and how popular
Republican principles and policies are in
Virginia. But in this case it is a national
question, and the Virginia Democrats are
not the national party. They rule them
selves outside of the party in the votes
they have cast and the measures they have
endorsed, as representatives of the Vir-
ginia Democracy, and should not be recog;
nzed as in fellowship with. the national
or in sympathy with the Ma
tional Democracy.